Congress never seems to lack legislation aimed at the National Park System, and this year is no different, with proposals to redesignate park names, modify park boundaries, and consider new units to the system.
For instance:
Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee wants the National Park Service to study whether the home of President James K. Polk in Columbia, Tennessee, should be added to the park system.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota wants to extend the North Country National Scenic Trail eastward from northeastern Minnesota to Vermont to tie into the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.
Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado wants to increase the size of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument to 6,300 acres.
Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota wants to modify the boundary of Voyageurs National Park by transferring parcels within the park boundaries that are owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to the National Park Service and to permit the federal government to acquire state lands within the park boundaries through purchase or exchange.
Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas wants to modify the boundary of Fort Scott National Historic Site by allowing the federal government to acquire through purchase or exchange additional acreage.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska wants to designate the 2.6 million acres of wilderness within Lake Clark National Park and Preserve as the Jay S. Hammond Wilderness Area. Hammond was the fourth governor of Alaska.
Sen. Kamala Harris of Californiawants to add about 44 acres to the John Muir National Historic Site.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee wants to modify the boundary of Shiloh National Military Park to include the Fallen Timbers Battlefield, the Russell House Battlefield, and the Davis Bridge Battlefield, and to establish Parker's Crossroads Battlefield as an affiliated area of the Park Service.
Rep. John Lewis of Georgia wants to rename the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site as the Martin Luther King Jr., National Historical Park.
Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia wants to expand Fort Frederica National Monument from 250 to 305 acres.
Rep. Sanford Bishop of Georgia wants to rename Ocmulgee National Monument as Ocmulgee National Historical Park and authorize the park to cover 2,100 acres.
Rep. Barry loundermilk of Georgia wants to expand Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park by roughly 8 acres to include the Wallis House and Harriston Hill.
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Congressman Darin LaHood from Illinois has introduced a bill to designate Route 66 as a National Historic Trail. Bill has 11 cosponsors from both parties.
Wish I would have seen this earlier. Chatted with Cory Gardner today. I would have told him "Great idea - but fund it and any
other expansion of NPS responsibilities."
Sounds like good news at a time when national parks and national monuments face threats.
One threat is the distinct possibility that the fake, split national monument at post-Army Fort Monroe, Virginia, will remain fake and split forever. The controversy is over the red area shown in the illustration at http://www.fortmonroenationalpark.org/ .
Recognizing this, the mayors of the four cities literally within eyesight of Fort Monroe recently wrote a letter formally encouraging Virginia's governor to follow through on his 2014 promises to see the split national monument unified. (As a practical political matter, Virginia's governor is the most important person on the planet for Fort Monroe's future.) A copy of the mayors' letter appears at the bottom of the home page at the URL cited above. (There's a link to a full-size copy.)
Unaccountably, given the past years of faithful news coverage of Fort Monroe's post-Army fate, neither the Newport News Daily Press nor the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot has reported the letter's existence.
Want to help? Please send an email note to [email protected] and another to [email protected] . You don't need to invest a lot of time, and they probably wouldn't read anything long anyhow. But brief nudges might help. Thanks.